I was back at the beautiful Forum Theatre for my last gig of 2024, the warm harmonies and comforting, country-tinged indie folk.
So far I’ve only heard one album by Katie Crutchfield, who hails from Alabama and goes under the musical moniker Waxahatchee, but I just had a hunch that she’d be a good one to see live, a feeling that absolutely paid off. It was a most satisfying end to my year of concert going.
I decided to take a strategic nap after work, so I arrived late to the last sounds of Good Morning, a Melbourne band with something like ten musicians onstage. The floor wasn’t yet packed and the crowd looked surprisingly young – or maybe I just have a wrong idea of alt-country as something mostly enjoyed by an older audience. I had an excellent view of the stage, at the cost of standing next to a very chatty and very tipsy group of friends. They were more or less quiet during the performance, but at times their banter was a tad too much. I do wish I could ignore noise and annoyances at the live concerts better.
Waxahatchee walked onstage to Dolly Parton’s Here I Am and quickly launched into the songs off Tigers Blood, the new album that got played in full during the night. I had no real idea what Katie Crutchfield actually looked like; she turned out to have tattoo-covered arms and magnificent long hair rivalling the 90s-era Alanis Morissette. She wore a sleeveless black dress and a bright yellow trucker hat that got tossed into the crowd during the first song, for some lucky fan to catch.
Crutchfield was fairly restrained in between the songs, but she delivered them with great gusto, grit and poise. Sometimes it’s enough to watch a gifted performer do what they do best while backed by a bunch of superb musicians (including one on banjo). Her warm, earthy voice with its southern lilt is simply enchanting live. Waxahatchee’s music has a strong sense of place and the concert felt transporting in a way I’ve rarely experienced, inviting all sorts of nostalgic Americana imagery and associations. There might not have been much in the way of musical variety, but I was into it from start to finish.
Along with Tigers Blood, Waxahatchee dipped generously into Saint Cloud, her breakthrough album that first got my attention, with gorgeous live renditions of Lilacs, Hell, Can’t Do Much among others. During the closing song before the encore, Good Morning were invited back onstage, for singalong and party atmosphere. Since I had another late night out the next day, I had briefly considered going home early before the show, but there was no chance of such heresy and I stuck around until the encore, sleep be damned.
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